That would likely cost more. And they could easily so a more expensive version later when they have a better handle on what the probably unit volumes sold would be. But right now with relatively little USB4 stuff out the higher prices will suppress the demand. ( and many "bigger" Windows laptops have a aux power connections so don't "have to" power. And even if do use a TYpe-C to power laptop this one gives ports "back". It isn't a one cable unplug-and-go , but it is probably close enough for many. ).
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OWC's Upcoming Thunderbolt Hub Adds More Thunderbolt 3 Ports to Your Mac
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That would likely cost more. And they could easily so a more expensive version later when they have a better handle on what the probably unit volumes sold would be. But right now with relatively little USB4 stuff out the higher prices will suppress the demand. ( and many "bigger" Windows laptops have a aux power connections so don't "have to" power. And even if do use a TYpe-C to power laptop this one gives ports "back". It isn't a one cable unplug-and-go , but it is probably close enough for many. ).
Well, unless you're consistently doing something that causes your MBP to use more than 60W, it will still be charging. And unless you're over 60W for hours at a time, you won't significantly deplete your battery while plugged into a dock like this. It's not ideal, but neither would be the fan noise if you're hammering on your system that hard.
Not at all. The USB PD power contracts are negotiated between the devices. The mini won't ask for or agree to take power over it's USB Type-C ports.
We don't know that the M1's Thunderbolt port can't support 2 4K displays. All we know is the the GPU can't.
No. It has four ports total. One connects to the computer, leaving three new ports.
Edit: I see what you're saying. The Mac had two ports to begin with. After you add this hub, you now have four ports, for an increase of two.
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It would cost a lot more and take a lot longer. The OWC hub is just the Intel Thunderbolt 4 Compact Dock reference design with some branding added in order to achieve the fastest certification and time-to-market.
I do hope that someone does it "The Right Way" at some point though.
I just ordered one, I have use up my 4 ports on my MacBook Pro 16 2019 model. 1. for a USB C powered hub, 2. for a Oculus Quest 2, Oculus link cable. 3. for my Razer EGPU box and 4. for a displayport 1.4 cable to my Samsung G7 display for Big Sur and Mac. Need a couple extra's if I need to add more thunderbolt 3 ports for expanding storage needs.
Could somebody make a box that combines two monitors then sends it to the computer as one ultra wide or ultra tall monitor?
If I remember correctly one of Apples old cinema displays used 2 DVI cables and combined it into one display?
Just throwing something out into the ether...
If I remember correctly one of Apples old cinema displays used 2 DVI cables and combined it into one display?
Just throwing something out into the ether...
I think you're missing the point that Thunderbolt 4 is just Intel's marketing label for a specific implementation of USB4. Apple already meets all of the technical requirements of USB4 plus Thunderbolt 3 interoperability with the M1 Macs. They didn't add additional display controllers to the M1 because it didn't align with their engineering goals for the intended products. Apple made those decisions years before Intel arbitrarily decided that two 4K displays would be a Thunderbolt 4 certification requirement. Obviously Intel also knew that their integrated controllers were all capable of this. So it's a little disingenuous to say, "We made Thunderbolt available to everyone for free!" and then say, "But you can't pass our paid certification program or use the Thunderbolt 4 trademark unless your implementation can do everything the one we sell can."
Silicon design cycles take many years. It only took Intel's marketing team 10 minutes to disqualify Apple's implementation from Thunderbolt 4 certification. I highly doubt this was entirely coincidental.
Same here. Have a 8 core macOS desktop running Big Sur with a 580 8GB and 32GB RAM, negligible difference in performance between that machine and my new M1 MBA with 16GB SoC. And the laptop is silent, fanless
I think I agree with you. Still, for me, 2 more ports would be great. I'm currently charging my new iPhone on my slower cable because I don't have a spare USB-C port for the new cord. I'd also have a place to keep my iPad charger.
This is exactly what I looked for earlier this year and couldn't find. A few more ports would help me keep my desk a little neater.
Well, you should be even happier then that this hub does in fact add 3 ports. The upstream port and USB Type-A are on one side, the three downstream ports and power connector are on the other side.
Could you please identify a cheap hub offering more than one Thunderbolt 3/4 port out?
You are sort of describe an LG UltraFine 5K display. It uses two 2560x2880 displays to make 5K. It is described to the computer as a tiled display that requires two DisplayPort signals. In actuality, the M1 Macs do provide two DisplayPort signals to the Thunderbolt controllers and can use both of them for a tiled display like the LG UltraFine 5K or the HP Z27q or the Dell UP2715K. While the M1 Macs can use two DisplayPort signals for a single tiled display, it cannot use the signals for two separate displays, so Apple cannot call it Thunderbolt 4.
Now, can you take any two displays and make macOS think they are a tiled display? Maybe. You would have to override the EDIDs of the displays so they have the tiled display information. There is a display overrides folder for the purpose of overriding things like the EDID. For macOS there's also an mtdd file to go with the override file (don't know why they need an mtdd file since Windows can handle arbitrary tiled displays without it). The M1 graphics system is very different from Intel Macs so I don't know if override files still work or if you can make your own mtdd file. I don't know if an override file can turn two displays into a tiled display (it may be that the drivers get that info directly from the display's EDID instead of the EDID override file).
If you want to avoid software hacks that probably don't work to make your tiled display, then there exist expensive video wall controller or processor which seem to be mostly 4K or less in total size.
Top 10 Video Wall Controllers | Video Review
Currently, the best video wall controller is the Link-Mi LM-TV09. Wiki researchers have been writing reviews of the latest video processors since 2017.
wiki.ezvid.com
Many, many thanks! I just didn't want to fry my MacMini out of the box. It still hasn't shipped, but I'm setting up my two monitors, keyboard, mouse on my desktop. Cables lined up, and I check my order status every 10 minutes
Well at least it seems like I do!
tb is great and so is usb c 3.1
but the picture shows so many cables
i think by now we would have less cabling in our computing lives
tech moves on and number of cables remains many
no mater usb 1.0 or newer tb and usb c 3.1
but the picture shows so many cables
i think by now we would have less cabling in our computing lives
tech moves on and number of cables remains many
no mater usb 1.0 or newer tb and usb c 3.1
yes, you can and it might be better. This thunderbolt hub is just to get you one more thunderbolt ports with same speed but less interface ports that Caldigit has on their TS3+. If you want more ports, TS3+ is the best. if you want less ports but cheaper solution, OWC thunderbolt hub is fine. Both products are 40G anyway doesnt matter its TB3 or TB4. For mac, they are all the same thunderbolt protocol.
On my iMac, I currently have a Blu-ray drive plugged into 1 port and a second monitor in the other. With this, I'd need to unplug the Blu-ray drive to plug this device in. Then I could plug the drive into this device. So of the 3 ports this thing has, one would go towards getting me back in the situation I'm in right now with a second monitor and external drive both working. Then there would be two additional ports left over for other things (iPhone 12 and iPad Pro chargers). Two additional USB-C ports to be completely clear as I don't care about the USB-A port.
At the end of the day, I'd gain two more USB-C ports. Or, if you prefer, I'd gain 3 ports on this device and lose 1 port on my iMac.
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Finally. Having an iMac with only 2 TB3 ports, I could never figure out why there were no TB hubs in existence since not all TB devices have a chain port on them. It's pricey, but definitely something I'm looking at.
Related: I wish USB-A to USB-C hubs were a thing. I've started to amass a collection of USB-C peripherals, but with a lot of TB devices and only two ports, being able to easily plug in some not-speed-sensitive C stuff to an A port would sure be convenient.
Related: I wish USB-A to USB-C hubs were a thing. I've started to amass a collection of USB-C peripherals, but with a lot of TB devices and only two ports, being able to easily plug in some not-speed-sensitive C stuff to an A port would sure be convenient.
maybe as a non-pro, I’m missing the point of the Thunderbolt docks. For me, it would just be nice to have Ethernet, a display port, and some USB.
Maybe I’m looking in the wrong places!
Apple also won’t be using Intel VT/d for DMA protection, so they might not ever apply for the TB 4 designation. But they seem to adhere to all the other specs in their existing Intel Macs, and all but the 2 4K display requirement and VT/d for the M1 Macs.
Ahh... I see what you’re saying now. 3 is indeed only 2 more than 1. I thought everyone was just missing the fact that there are 3 ports on one side and one on the other. (I wasn’t including the USB Type-A port because it’s not at all the same thing.)
They could have at least bothered to give more than 1 USB-A port. Pretty stupid.